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Monday, April 25, 2011

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Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone indicated he would consider selling his West London football team Queens Park Rangers with a £100m price tag.

Suggestions he may pull out of QPR come as the 80-year-old hinted at the weekend he may retire from his role at F1 if Rupert Murdoch’s media empire takes control.

However, the motor racing tycoon admitted his ability to sell depends on former shareholder Flavio Briatore.

Ecclestone has a 62pc stake in QPR after buying out Briatore in December last year but says at the time of that deal the Italian got an option to take back the stake if he were to sell.F1 supremo boss Bernie Ecclestone

Major shareholder: Bernie Ecclestone has a 62pc stake in the west London club

Last month it was reported that a group of American and Asian businessmen want to buy out Ecclestone and the club said in a statement that it ‘has entered into preliminary discussions, which may or may not result in an offer being made.’

However, Ecclestone says that Briatore holds the keys to a sale.

‘I don’t have any choice staying in or going out,’ says Ecclestone adding ‘Flavio would probably be the one to sell if anybody’.

‘It is dependent on Flavio.’ He adds that ‘if somebody bought that team today it would be a very good punt. It is probably worth £100m.’

QPR is aiming for a return to the Premier League for the first time since 1996. However, its performance is not thanks to a cash injection from Ecclestone, who has made an estimated £2.4bn from F1.

QPR made an £18.8m after-tax loss in 2008-09 when it finished 11th in the division and then lost another £13.7m last year when it finished 13th.

Ecclestone says ‘you see a lot of these clubs today that are nowhere as high in the league as we are, playing people that have fallen from the top and beating them so there is no need to spend these fortunes.’

Ecclestone at the weekend hinted he is ready to quit as boss of F1 if Rupert Murdoch’s media empire succeeds in a bid to take control of the sport.

Ecclestone, who has previously dismissed the idea of retirement, said in an interview: ‘I’m old enough to get a pension, so I don’t have to get a job. I’d have to be sure the people (who end up owning F1) are people I would like to work with and whether they would want to work with me.’

Murdoch’s News Corporation is reported to have held early talks with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and at least one of the sport’s big car manufacturers about forming a consortium to acquire control.

Private equity firm CVC is said to be conducting a strategic review and could sell. Daily Mail